HP Inc. and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have teamed up on a pilot program that seeks to speed up testing of new drugs against antimicrobial resistant bacteria through the use of an inkjet printing system.
CDC has purchased HP D300e Digital Dispenser BioPrinters for deployment to four regional laboratories in Minnesota, New York, Wisconsin and Tennessee that are part of the Antibiotic Resistance Lab Network, the company said Monday.
The BioPrinter is designed to accelerate antibiotics testing at the local level by dispensing or “printing†biomolecules and small molecules in test plates within minutes.
The regional labs will use the printing technology to begin susceptibility tests for new antibiotics during the first quarter of fiscal 2019 with a plan to prioritize testing for pan-resistant bacteria.
HP will work with CDC to help the agency assess the pilot program and potentially expand the deployment of the inkjet printing system to other labs in the country.